The Hindu Business Line : Farm labour price index up despite fall in inflation rate

New Delhi, Aug. 20 The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation fell 1.53 per cent during the week ended August 8 against the previous week’s year-on-year dip of 1.74 per cent, according to data issued on Thursday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The annual inflation rate for the corresponding week the previous year was 12.82 per cent.

Meanwhile, the point-to-point rate of Consumer Price Index-based inflation for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers, released by the Labour Ministry on Thursday, surged 12.90 per cent and 12.67 per cent respectively for July 2009, up from 11.52 per cent and 11.26 per cent reported in June. The rates of inflation during July 2008 were 9.41 per cent for both the series.

According to the Industry Ministry data, the WPI for ‘All Commodities’ increased 0.1 per cent to 237.4 points from 237.2 points for the previous week.

Food articles

On a disaggregated basis, the Primary Articles index rose 0.2 per cent sequentially as the index for ‘Food Articles’ group surged 0.2 per cent due to higher inflation in items such as bajra and urad (2 per cent each) and condiments and spices, arhar and fruits and vegetables (1 per cent each). However, the prices of jowar (4 per cent), barley (2 per cent) and moong (1 per cent) declined.

The index for ‘Non-Food Articles’ group declined by 0.1 per cent due to lower prices of raw silk (2 per cent). However, the prices of raw rubber (2 per cent) moved up.

Fuel, power

The ‘Fuel and Power’ group index declined marginally due to lower prices of light diesel oil (2 per cent) and naphtha (1 per cent). However the prices of bitumen (1 per cent) moved up.

The ‘Manufactured Products’ group index rose 0.1 per cent as the index for ‘Food Products’ group rose 0.4 per cent due to higher inflation in khandsari and rice bran oil (3 per cent each), imported edible oil, sooji (rawa) and cotton seed oil (2 per cent each) and maida, ghee and oil cakes (1 per cent each).

However, the prices of bran of all kind (2 per cent) declined. The index for the ‘Textiles’ group declined 0.1 per cent due to lower prices of hessian cloth (3 per cent).

The index for ‘Base Metals Alloys and Metal Products’ group rose marginally due to higher prices of steel ingots (4 per cent) and zinc ingots and lead ingots (3 per cent each).

Metal group

The index for ‘Machinery and Machine Tools’ group rose 0.2 per cent to 171.9 points from 171.6 points for the previous week due to higher prices of tractor components and accessories (12 per cent) and complete tractors (1 per cent).

For the week ended June 13, the final WPI for ‘All Commodities’ and annual rate of inflation based on final index, calculated on point to point basis, stood unchanged at their provisional week’s level of 234.2 points and minus 1.14 per cent.